Minnesota Lynx get spotlight in state's largest corn maze
A corn maze in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota is featuring the Minnesota Lynx mascot, Prowl for the 2019 season.
BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) - For the past 10 years, Bert Bouwman and his family have transformed their Brooklyn Park cornfield into the Twin Cities Harvest Festival.
“We are the ones who farm it, we are the ones who hoe it, and design it, and everything is done with our family,” said Bouwman.
From the ground, it is a corn maze filled with dozens of twists and turns. From the air, that the tall stalks of corn really take shape.
“It takes a lot of determination, creativity,” he said.
The massive field was carefully designed to recreate Prowl, the Minnesota Lynx team mascot.
“The Lynx, they are a great team to work with,” said Bouwman. “They have really won a lot of titles for us, and we thought, why not value what they’ve done.”
Bouwman didn’t use a computer program or any special technology to construct the image - everything he says, was done by hand.
“I do it the old school way, I draw on the kitchen table,” said Bouwman.
He says it all comes down to mathematics.
“So it’s a grid paper and a grid field,” he said. “So all I need to do is count the squares and make sure we’re in the right square to see which one will be taken out and which one will remain.”
The corn maze is made up of 20 acres. It took a crew of about 10 people over a week to carve out each pathway.
“We want to be sure to accommodate people with wheelchairs, strollers and if it’s rainy weather we want the water to run away from the trail,” said Bouwman.
It’s a work of art that's become the largest, and one of the most impressive corn mazes in the state.
“It keeps me busy and I like the challenge,” he said.